I'm not gonna lie, Most of the Danganronpa Male Self-Insert fanfics are terrible and aren't showing any signs of getting better or creative. They all seem to have the same narrative that's completely overdone and just mediocre. I'm talking Particularly about the ones that take on the main story of the Games/Anime (Excluding DR2, UDG, V3 cus there's not a lot and most aren't not even worth talking about).
With DR1 books, There's a whole list of shit:
1. Sometimes the "Reader/MC" is just someone's OC.
In some books, The MC will develop some type of Alter Ego - Sometimes changing the MC's Name and Character, And if the author is going to do all of that, Just make the damn book about an OC, There's also the case where despite the fact that it's "Self-Insert" the author will go ahead and decide what you/you're character looks like completely missing the point of what a "Self-Insert" fanfic is...
2. Sometimes the MC is killed off then brought back through unknown or means, So y'now ...Invincibility...(And sometimes the reveal is done in the most cliche way like the elevator to the Trial Grounds are coming down and I guess it's supposed to be some climatic reveal to the characters and...I guess the reader? Either way it's cliche as hell and utterly predictable.
3. The Characters personality are too often Altered in a ridiculous way for distasteful or bad reasons within the Story.
4. There's also this thing with Mini Harems? I guess the writer can't decide on who the love Interest will be so they include 2 or 3 girls creating some shitty love triangle, but the worst part is by the end of book The girls never talk about or acknowledge that their dating the same guy which is very just off putting and tasteless to me. But tbh I guess the worst is just the harem itself.....
(Mainly because it leads to the MC being this boring, cringy, and stereotypical "cool" and "edgy" guy who's randomly calling the girls "cute" for no reason and somehow that wins their heart with that alone.... Sometimes the MC is a Just a typical generic nice guy who can even be annoyingly clingy to the girls, but yeah.....pretty normal harem shit, Just boring and annoying writing as a whole😶)
5. The MC always does the repetitive and overused act where early in the story (Usually Chapter's 1/2 in DR1) They turn into "The Traitor" which is basically a edgy evil character with predictable dialogue that comes out of nowhere and starts to terrorize the characters within story. Usually there's never a reason for it, But when there is, it's usually a bad paced backstory about the MC.
While a backstory is cool, It's hardly done well, It usually contains Tons of OC's that are thrown into the main story without having anything to do with it.
Another thing is that the Sidestory is just plain bad and the authors never give the readers a reason to care for it. Another problem is that they try to put DR characters into the backstory which comes with also altering their personalities and is really just an unnecessary thing itself.
Now something else that's completely asinine and underdeveloped is the MC's "Redemption Arc". Basically near the middle or end of the Story the MC is forgiven for all his crimes such as "Lying, Manipulating, and even causing deaths" and is welcomed back to the friend group with warm smiles as if nothing ever happened. Sometimes the Reader even saves the day thanks to some BS secret plan they've had since the start of the near end of the story.
6. Annoying Reoccurring Character Tropes:
What's above pretty much explains what I'm going to talk about next.
The MC sometimes has a Cocky and "Cool" try-hard personality that acts like some type of king but it doesn't even come across as charming at the least and will always make snarky comments at the DR characters or belittling them out of nowhere or even physically harming them trying to come across as funny and righteous to the readers.
Another bad character trope example similar to this like what I said in #5, In some Fics, The MC will SHAMELESSLY turn into a Despair-Obsessed version of Nagito (This is where "The Traitor" character comes into place).
I don't know why this trope is copy and pasted so much, I mean if some people enjoy it, that's that; But it's gotten boring and predictable. You'd think some writers would try to be original and strive for something else instead of copying what damn near every other DR book does🤔. Sad part is this doesn't look like it's gonna stop anytime so "Unique" Danganronpa x Male Reader books are gonna be hard to find.
(BTW, I'm not trying to come across as some soft ass dude when I complain about the characters getting hurt, What annoys me is that it happens over this happens over the dumbest and boring shit that's so laughably bad it feels like it came out of some try hard edgy shit from 2015😂)
Now as for the DR3 Fics.....Honestly theres hardly anything to talk about apart from the fact There ALL a bunch of Boring Harem stories and I'm not even exaggerating this🙂
Basically everything takes place in the DR3 Despair Arc Timeline, The MC is either some Super cliche nice guy or The edge lord (sometimes overpowered) who softens up to everyone and his Ultimate Talent is something that makes him OP and/or a perfect problem solver (Or Sometimes it's just in the character's "personality" if you could call it that).
The MC is mostly placed in the DR2 Cast paired up with the Girls in that class and The first girl is usually or always Chiaki who instantly falls in love with the MC after very little time and the same goes for the other girls in class 77 (along with Mukuro for some reason) and it's pretty much all a mediocre mess....So Essentially that just makes them generic harem fanfics, Which is nothing out of the ordinary for Wattpad I guess........(What sucks is that I've only seen 4 DR3 books NOT follow this trend)
It's also worth mentioning that there are other books that mashup all the Danganronpa Characters (Mainly the Cast of Each Game/Anime) and put them all into Hope's Peak Academy (These books also suffer from Harem Syndrome).
MC's Ultimate Talent is usually some nonsense that has to do with Another Franchise or some other piece of Fiction. At that point the book hardly resembles any related to Danganronpa other than the fact the it has some of the characters and the setting, and even those don't show up half the time. A bunch of random and unnecessary OC's that have a relationship with the Reader show up and stick around longer than they should, And then there's the Love Interest(s) that get caught up in the Non-Danganronpa stuff (Personality Altered and All) and from then on it's just a shit show that's easy to lose interest in
Something worth mentioning is that There are also the Danganronpa One-Shots Books but oddly enough those are pretty solid and enjoyable for the most part....
Alright, That's it for the Rant. Now do yourselves a favor and go read Chainsaw Man
